On Monday, January 31, 2011 01:55:20 pm Jernej Simončič did opine: > On Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:39:06 -0500, Gene Heskett wrote: > > Oh oh, he's been drinking the koolaid. What we FOSS people are > > objecting to is the WGA that gets installed with SP2 I believe it > > was, and this thing does phone home on every reboot to check if its a > > legally purchased and registered copy, AND that it is running on the > > same hardware it was originally installed on. > > WGA is a separate update, and you don't need to install it (while it is > among the auto-install updates, you can tell Windows to never install > it, and even if you forget that, it will not actually install unless > you explicitly agree - it displays a license on next boot, and if you > choose "Do not agree", and click Next and then Cancel, it won't bother > you again).
Yup, and some things will never work right again. BTDTBTTS. And that was put in place only after M$ phone lines were tied up for months, from honest people objecting to being screwed. > > Change a hard drive because it went face down in > > the pool, and you have to buy _another_ copy of windows. > > Don't spread lies - I am not lying, and I resent the accusation. That exact scenario I described happened to me. Before the days of cheap long distance, I probably ran the phone bill up $200 arguing with them. Because that machine wasn't exactly a utility machine but specially programmed for a CBS networking email application that actually got its input data from the VITS/Teletext, and its downtime was costing us about that much a day anyway, I relented and bought another copy of NT-3.51. About 3 months later the drive went face down in the pool, and I made CBS image me another drive and send it out, turned out to be much simpler and a weeks faster way to get it going again. At that point neither of us had a quarter to call someone and see if it was legal. > first, if you have an OEM copy of Windows (that was > pre-installed by a major computer manufacturer), it'll never deactivate > (as long as you keep the motherboard), because it only checks the > license in BIOS. If you have a non-branded OEM copy or a retail > version, you'll at worst have to call the activation centre (but this > is only needed in rare circumstances - usually Windows will just > activate automatically, assuming some time has passed since last > activation). While it's not legal to move an OEM copy from one computer > to another, you can even do that, since there's no real way to tell you > did it (unless let WGA install, and you use Windows on both computers). > There's no restrictions I wouldn't know today. The last copy of XP I bought on a laptop 5 years ago, and wiped it when I did my 2nd linux install 4 years ago. There are no other windows machines on the premises. > > And if someone > > publishes a way to defeat this "feature", they find a DMCA take down > > notice from M$ the next day. > > Doing a google search would suggest otherwise. Then why are such utilities so hard to find? And I rest my case, I should have just STFU in the first place. -- Cheers, Gene "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) <http://tinyurl.com/ddg5bz> I must have slipped a disk -- my pack hurts! _______________________________________________ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU https://lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
